Saturday, November 22, 2014

A new report asks whether the race and affluence of Adam Lanza's family influenced decisions about how to care for his mental health problems in the years before he committed the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Among the findings in the report, which was released Friday by the state office of Child Advocate, is that Lanza's his parents and educators contributed to his social isolation by accommodating — and not confronting — his difficulties engaging with the world.

The report said recommendations from Yale psychologists that he be medicated and undergo rigorous treatment as a child for anxiety and other conditions were rejected by his mother, who eventually took him out of school.

"Is the community more reluctant to intervene and more likely to provide deference to the parental judgment and decision-making of white, affluent parents than those caregivers who are poor or minority?" the report asks. "Would (Adam Lanza's) caregivers' reluctance to maintain him in school or a treatment program have gone under the radar if he were a child of color?"

Lanza's father is a financial services executive. The son and his mother lived in an exclusive neighborhood in the wealthy bedroom community, 70 miles north of Manhattan.

Research has found that upper-middle-class parents are far more likely to be resistant, defensive and even litigious when presented with treatment options suggested by school service providers, said Suniya Luthar, a professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, who has written extensively on the topic of affluence and mental health.

The gunman was identified by authorities as Myron May, a 2005 graduate of FSU. He graduated from Texas Tech University's law school in 2009, and practiced law in both Texas and New Mexico, according to Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo. May moved back into the area a few weeks ago.

The school canceled all classes and exams Thursday in the wake of the shooting, offering counseling services to those directly and indirectly affected.

Meanwhile, investigators are surveying the scene and interviewing witnesses -- trying to determine exactly what happened and for what reason. DeLeo, the police chief, hedged when asked whether May had fired at officers, saying investigators still have more witnesses to interview. He said is appears none of the victims were targeted for any specific reason.

"Mr. May had a written journal and videos where he expressed fears of being targeted and that he wanted to bring attention to this issue of targeting," DeLeo told reporters. "A preliminary review of these documents and videos demonstrate that Mr. May was in a state of crisis."

In many discussions, there comes a point at which someone rejects not only interpretations based on judgements but facts as well. The facts about guns in the United States are mixed, leaving both sides the opportunity to have valid positions derived from their values–freedom or safety–without being compelled to choose one answer or another to be intellectually honest. For example, some 30,000 Americans die each year from gunshots, while something like 80,000 suffer non-fatal injuries. At the same time, hundred of thousands use firearms to defend their lives annually.

When describing defensive gun uses, the gun-rights fanatics love to exaggerate in two ways. First they inflate the actual count, then they call that exaggerated count, uses of "firearms to defend their lives." The truth is, these estimates include shootings at snakes and coyotes. They include innumerable incidents of minor threats that in no way were life threatening. They also include many cases of property crime being thwarted in which no person was in danger at all.That last link to a Slate dot com article is interesting. Here's a quote:

“Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year … in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008,” says the report.

There are many estimates that come in under that 500,000 figure. Greg knows this, and in fact, has quoted them himself. But in that typical exaggerating way of his, he selected this misleading article to make his point.I'm afraid old Greg Camp hasn't changed much in these months since he disappeared from this blog. Some believe he's been commenting anonymously, but I'd like to take this opportunity to officially invite him back. Arguing with Greg never fails to make gun control look good.

One man was treated for minor injuries after a person in an adjoining business accidentally discharged a gun.Around 2:45 p.m., Owasso Police responded to a shooting at a Billy Sims BBQ. Police say that a person in a neighboring business was inspecting a firearm when it was accidentally discharged. The projectile went through the wall and debris or fragments struck a cashier in the restaurant.The victim was treated and released by medics. Police officers are still on the scene investigating and will determine if any charges will be filed.

A mother has pleaded not guilty in connection to the accidental shooting of a 9-year-old girl by her 12-year-old brother.

As News 12 New Jersey previously reported, police say the girl was accidentally shot by her brother with a stolen gun. The boy was playing with the unsecured gun Saturday at a home on Renner Avenue in Newark.

The children's mother, 33-year-old Catrese Thomas, is charged...

Sabeer Brumson's gun was allegedly used by a 12-year-old boy to accidentally shoot his 9-year-old sister.

Police have arrested a man in connection with the accidental shooting of a 9-year-old.

Authorities say Sabeer Brumson, 33, was taken into custody in Moorestown.

Police say a 12-year-old boy found the gun in their Newark apartment on Renner Avenue last weekend and accidentally shot his 9-year-old sister.

Police say Brumson is the boyfriend of the children's mother, who faces child...

“Our crumbling infrastructure and soaring gun violence are a good start,
but much work still needs to be done,” he said. “When Americans start
leaving the country, we’ll know that we’re on the right track.”

Thursday, November 20, 2014

BREAKING NEWS:At least two people were shot in a library at Florida State University as a school alert message urged people to take shelter in a "dangerous situation."

FSUNews.com reported that the shooting occurred at around 12:30 a.m. local time on the first floor of the Strozier Library. The site reported that at least four gunshots were heard and approximately 30 police officers responded to the scene.

A nursing supervisor at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital told the Associated Press that the hospital was treating two people for gunshot wounds early Thursday. The supervisor did not disclose the patients conditions or whether they were students. Hospital officials had no information about whether they could expect more patients.

A local father plead guilty in his 3-year-old's accident shooting death today. Thomas Chambers made a terrible mistake that cost his 3-year old daughter her life. Should he go to jail, or has he suffered enough? That was the dilemma in the case of Thomas Chambers, who on Tuesday, appeared in court to plead guilty in the death of his daughter Zuri. Chambers sobbed and wiped away tears at times during the hearing. Zuri was killed in February at the family’s home in Lake Worth. Chambers was getting ready for work, and left his gun, loaded, on a table by the front door. Zuri found the weapon and accidentally shot herself.In a video made shortly after the tragedy, Chambers told detectives, “I didn't think she was strong enough to… pull that."It came out in the investigation that Zuri had picked up her parents’ guns before-- one of the factors leading to criminal charges against Chambers. In a deal struck with prosecutors, Chambers avoids jail time, but will serve up to 10 years of probation.“There really isn’t anything, any penalty, that you could craft that is worse than what he has to live with for the rest of his life,” said Suskauer.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

If you are going to look back to Rome as an example of how Europe should be (or Europeans in general):

The
Roman Empire was one of history's most successful melting pots. In
comparison to some of history's more recent super-powers, Roman society
was relatively tolerant of foreign cultures and religions, provided they
did not disturb the peace. Issues of skin color and physical
characteristics, as far as can be told, were of little or no importance
in the Empire, presumably due to the cosmopolitan nature of its major
cities from the early Republic.

By the 1st Century AD, inscriptions and historic writings attest to the
many cultural and national groups represented amongst the political and
military elites of the Roman Empire. Gaulish chieftains were serving in
the Senate at least as early as the reign of Claudius. Jews, Greeks,
and Syrians were holding military commands from Egypt to Britain. Some
of the most rich and powerful men in 2nd Century Rome were Africans and
Spaniards, many of whom still spoke their Latin with Celtiberian or
Punic accents. It's not surprising that, by the 2nd Century, most
of the Caesars were not even Romans - if one defines a "Roman" as being
an Italian born in Rome or in the traditional Roman territories of
Italy. In fact, most of the Emperors after the Julio-Claudians were
provincial, or at best non-Roman Italian in origins.

Next time some person who thinks Europe is better than other cultures shows up--show them this! It's still somewhat truncated, but it does a better job of showing how other cultures (e.g., Asian and Arabic) influenced European Culture. Not as much illustration of how Africa influenced Europe as I would like, but you can't have it all.

The sacrifice of the Spartans at Thermopylae had greatly inspired other Greeks insofar as it was believed that these soldiers had given their lives to defend Greece as a nation, disdaining narrowly Spartan interests. When offered the crown of Greece by a Persian messenger, Spartan King, Leonidas answered, "If you knew what is good in life, you would abstain from wishing for foreign things. For me it is better to die for Greece than to be monarch over my compatriots." In this sense, the Battle of Thermopylae is often described as the birth of Greek nationalism, and thus of nationalism generally.

Smith County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, from the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office stating that they had received a 911 call regarding a man accidentally shooting himself at 31 West Shooting Range at 16934 Texas Highway 31 west.

The man, identified as Dooley by Tankersley, died at the scene.

Sheriff officials said the shooting death remains under investigation early this morning.

“He has a lot of guns and just loved shooting. He was certainly not a novice and knew his way around guns,” he said. “He would go out to the range all the time and just shoot.”

These big bucks are smart, darn smart. I am pitting my mind as a human against the best of the species. This chess game is addicting. It is the ultimate way to stay in touch with our primal senses. I am connected to the pulse of life and understand just how quickly life can be taken.

A 10-year-old boy continues to recover after authorities say he shot himself in the face with his father's gun while sitting inside an SUV in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

The shooting took place in a black SUV parked in an industrial park along the 1400 block of Calcon Hook Road in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, around 10:20 p.m. Saturday, police said.

The boy was waiting with his sister in the vehicle, outside an auto repair shop, when he found his father's .357 caliber revolver and it went off, police told NBC10. The father was inside the shop. The mother had just dropped the children off.

Prosecutors are currently deciding whether the boy's father should be charged.

Laws in all 50 states permitting people to carry concealed firearms in public have been connected to a rise in violent crimes, according to a new report from researchers at Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities.

The report, published in September and issued as a National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper last week, adds to a series of studies over the last decade tending to discredit the "more guns, less crime" hypothesis, which argues that right-to-carry laws serve as crime deterrents by allowing ordinary Americans to better protect themselves.

The new findings suggest that right-to-carry laws are "associated with substantially higher rates" of aggravated assault, rape and robbery, Stanford law professor John J. Donohue III, one of the study’s three authors, explained in a press release on Friday. Stanford law student Abhay Aneja and Johns Hopkins doctoral student Alexandria Zhang co-authored the report.

Among violent crimes, the most significant increase came in aggravated assault, which may have risen by nearly 33 percent, according to the report. The researchers also found that from 1999 to 2010, murder rates rose in eight states that adopted right-to-carry laws.